Jón Gnarr joining the Liberal Reform Party: "I'm a great anarchist and a libertarian"

"I have always been political. During the presidential election campaign, I found that I really enjoyed this. That's why I started looking into the possibility of going to parliament," says Jón Gnarr, former presidential candidate and mayor of Reykjavík. He intends to run for the Liberal Reform Party (Viðreisn) in the next parliamentary elections.

He says that the Liberal Reform Party was chosen after an election test he took online.

"I took the Compass online election test before the last election. It was quite detailed as you answered 40 questions. There I came out as 70% as belonging to the Liberal Reform party."

He says he has many friends and acquaintances in the party and talked to them before making his decision.

"I looked at it and I found that I am very ready for it. I want to do this, and I can bring a lot to the party, and I think I'm bringing issues along that I think are important," he says.

Wants to be the Minister of Education

When asked, Jón Gnarr says he wants to fight for freedom and that the school system is on his mind.

"I want to work on the freedom of individuals to choose and reject. This applies to many things such as e.g. the school system, which is closely related to the happiness and well-being of young people today. I've talked about my personal experience with the school system and I think that the system needs to be opened up so that it offers more possibilities than falling into a certain box."

He therefore says that the position of Minister of Education would be his main ideal position in parliament, but also to influence the education system that Icelanders are developing.

"I feel that in many places it is possible to open up and allow other types of behavior than what is considered the only and correct behavior in the classroom," he reiterates.

Negative consequences of a certain ideology

Jón Gnarr says he prefers to look at the elementary school level in this context, as well as the secondary school level to some extent.

"We see very negative consequences of a certain ideology. The number of students in all kinds of apprenticeships and industrial studies has decreased, which is a shame. Then the dropout of kids from secondary school is way too much."

He adds that the experience he had during his time when he was playing in Akureyri Theatre Company had a great impact on him. Then teachers at VMA asked him to come and discuss how to prevent student dropouts, especially given that he had a broken school record.

"It touched me very deeply and was long before I had announced my presidential candidacy."

Does not share the ideals of the Social Democratic Alliance

Jón Gnarr has previously been on the list for parliamentary elections. Then he was on the list of The Social Democratic Alliance together with Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir. But he says the Social Democratic Alliance's ideology does not apply to him.

"I am a great anarchist and libertarian and I put a lot of emphasis on the freedom of individuals over their personal lives and this fundamental ideology that people should enjoy freedom as long as it does not undermine the freedom of others. And that our freedom does not concern the government unless certain conditions are met. That distinguishes me from the social democrats," he says.

Ready for boredom

Now you have said that you were bored a lot when you were in the mayor's chair. How do you think you deal with boredom in parliament?

"Boredom is just boredom. I don't mind it, although some things can be long-winded and difficult. Many things will be boring, but others will not."

He also says that the situation in his life has changed compared to when he left as mayor. Then there were several creative opportunities that he felt he needed to take care of. Both writing and acting. He thinks he's got it covered for now at least.

Age and maturity

"I aim to work as an MP as my main job and work on something creative on the side. But I'm kind of saying goodbye to the creative sector. But then this is also age and maturity. I think the timing is good and I think there is a certain resolution in politics and there is a lot of excitement. Changes between categories are followed. That's why I find this exciting. I'm looking forward to tackling this."

He says that he got a master's degree in administration when he was mayor. That experience will help him if he gets to partake in government.  

"I had already promised a polar bear to the zoo when I was running for Mayor, but the first thing I did when I sat down in the chair was to hammer together a budget for a city that had fallen into a financial collapse," Jón Gnarr says laughing, illustrating it as an example of the lessons learned from the job of mayor.